How to reopen your gym, pool or leisure facility post lockdown

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The Government has announced that gyms, pools and other leisure facilities in England can reopen from July 25.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden also said that tattooists, beauticians and nail salons can reopen from Monday, July 13.
As well as general COVID-19 safety advice, such as encouraging contactless payments and putting up signage to highlight social distancing, the government has issued specific guidelines for leisure facilities.
The full guidelines can be found at the Gov.uk, but we’ve picked out the most important ones you should know about.
Visiting instructors, coaches, teachers, and management
If you’re running class or personal coaching sessions, keep these in mind:

Consider limiting the number of classes that rotating instructors teach in order to minimise exposure
Determine the number of facilities they are comfortable with instructors rotating amongst in order to minimise exposure. Establish a system for monitoring this
Given the high risk of transmission from visiting instructors, where possible, establish a private testing programme for rotating/visiting instructors

Contact while using facilities
Fitness spaces
Pieces of gym equipment should be an appropriate distance apart so as to comply with social distancing guidelines and with a suitable margin for adequate circulation or one-way routes. This can be achieved by moving equipment,

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Small businesses say that they won’t survive second COVID-19 spike

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
A significant proportion of small businesses wouldn’t be able to survive a second spike of COVID-19, according to new research.
Sage’s latest report, ‘Survival, Resilience and Growth: placing small businesses at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery’, says that 86 per cent of respondents believe a second wave would have a negative impact on their business. Meanwhile, 39 per cent say that it would be severe and a further 15 per cent say their businesses could not survive it.
What’s more, one in two SMEs say they’re not confident they oculd handle a 20 per cent drop in revenue between now and September. A significant number (39 per cent) of businesses aren’t even sure that they’ll return to profitability by December 2020.
These businesses say they would struggle with other issues like a decrease in customers, losing key talent, cyber security and disruption in their supply chain.
Problems will also arise in the early months of 2021 as businesses will need to make payments that have been delayed due to the pandemic.
Dealing with a second spike or coronavirus and other challenges
Small firms are relying on preparation, liquidity and digitisation to protect them against future crises.
Some 40

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Coronavirus small business diary – James Cadbury, Love Cocoa

Originally written by James Cadbury on Small Business
Love Cocoa is the luxury, ethical chocolate start-up created by James Cadbury (great-great-great grandson of Cadbury founder John Cadbury).
Based in Dalston, London, Love Cocoa has five full-time staff, while production of its handmade chocolate is outsourced to a family-run factory based in Stoke.
The brand offers luxury, ethical chocolate sustainably sourced from Columbia, palm-oil free with 100 per cent recyclable packaging and compostable inners made from wood pulp. Quirky flavours included gin and tonic, avocado and birthday cake.
The brand turned down an investment offer from Dragons’ Den in 2018 and has grown 400 per cent since to become a million-pound brand.
Love Cocoa is about to redesign its brand and launch a tree-planting project – “One bar = one tree”; for every Love Cocoa product sold, the company will plant a tree in partnership with the charity Trees for the Future, with the aim of planting over 500,000 trees in northern Cameroon in 2020, helping cocoa farmers gain a much needed second source of income while combating deforestation and climate change.
>See also: Coronavirus small business diary – Alessandro Savelli, Pasta Evangelists
25th January
We begin to think that the path ahead might be tricky when the bespoke

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